The Wayne State University School of Medicine's Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation-Oakwood has announced that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has awarded the Brian Injury Medicine Fellowship full accreditation.
Under the leadership of Program Director Riley Smith, M.D., WSU assistant professor, the 12-month brain injury medicine fellowship based at Beaumont Hospital-Taylor, located in Taylor, Mich., will focus on brain injury prevention and the evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation of individuals with acquired brain injury. Fellowship applications are accepted commencing in September of each academic year through the National Resident Matching Program rehabilitation match process.
Dr. Smith, an alumnus of both the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency and the Brain Injury Medicine fellowship, provides a high level of specialized training for fellows in the care of patients and their families within the hospital, post-acute setting and during the continuum of care to facilitate the process of recovery and improve medical and functional outcomes for patients.
The fellowship educates trainees in all aspects of clinical practice, treatment and rehabilitation strategies, including professional clinical experience in both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation settings. The fellowship training also includes a research component and quality improvement component that emphasizes scholarship and original contributions to the study of traumatic brain injury while reinforcing publication and presentation skills, and providing experience in the administrative aspects of the field.
Brain Injury Medicine is a newer subspecialty certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties. The BIM Fellowship is the only one in the state of Michigan and one of only 16 in the United States. This fellowship helps fill the growing need to train more physicians who can provide specialized care for patients with brain injury.
With the recent media focus on professional athletes who sustain concussions during play and youth athletes and their families' greater awareness of concussions through the education efforts of schools and sports facilities now conducting sideline management and screening for concussions, there is a great need for BIM physicians in health care. As part of the training plan, the fellow will be a member of a multi-disciplinary medical and allied health services team caring for people after acquired brain injury. The curriculum is customized to individual fellow interests and builds on past medical experience.
The genesis of the program began in 2014. Dr. Smith played an instrumental role in further development of the fellowship curriculum and was appointed program director in 2016, navigating it through a successful ACGME site visit in April and full accreditation Aug. 28.
Additional brain injury medicine faculty includes Lawrence Horn, M.D.; Kenneth Casey, M.D.; Tyler Roskos, Ph.D.; Jean Peduzzi-Nelson, Ph.D.; and Darren Fuerst, Ph.D. Alumni of the BIM Fellowship include Dr. Smith and Steve Bou, M.D. Michael Kasprzak, D.O., is the current BIM Fellow.
For more information about the fellowship application NRMP process, contact Michelle Brock, fellowship coordinator, at mbrock@med.wayne.edu or 313-375-7226.